Prior conventional rail-lifting tongs are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 1,972,583, where two pivoted arms are suspended from a pair of toggle links hanging from a crane-supported ring. The lower ends of the arms terminate in flat, snub-ended pincer jaws, and one arm has an upper handle by which the tong-operator maneuvers the tongs, collaborating with a crane operator, to lower the tongs and open the jaws, engaging them under the head or ball of the rail before lifting, and to tilt, open and release the rail after its positioning by the crane. Both hooking and unhooking of the rail have thus required close attention to a tong-operator.
The advent of continuous welded rail has created a need for a rail handling device achieving continuous "threading" of the rail lying along the roadbed directly into place on the tie plates for spiking. No such device has been available before the present invention.